William Buckley stars as St Finbarr's cruise against Imokilly in PSHC quarter-final
Barrs captain Brian Hayes finds himself without a hurley as he looks to make a pass against Imokilly in the Co-Op Superstores Premier Senior quarter-final at Midleton. Picture: Larry Cummins
A third quarter where St Finbarr’s outscored Imokilly 0-10 to 0-3 made all the difference here in Midleton, as the Togher outfit eased into a Cork Premier Senior Hurling Championship semi-final against Kanturk.
Same stage, same venue and same outcome as last year’s quarter-final. But this one was a far tamer affair, influenced as much by who Imokilly didn't have as by anything the Barrs produced.
Diarmuid Healy, Jack Leahy and Sean O’Donoghue played no part on Sunday, while Cillian O’Callaghan was reduced to 20 minutes from the bench. Conor Cahill and Eoghan O'Riordan didn't finish the game, both forced off injured in the second half. Four of those six had togged out for their clubs the previous day The candystripes were rightly proud of their efforts given the circumstances. They had been competitive for large spells, but fatigue reared its ugly head and they tailed off in the second period.
The Barrs were not with a full hand themselves – Brian Hayes started without hitting the heights of his fellow Cork panellists, Eoghan Finn was kept for the second half and Jack Cahalane didn’t feature – yet they couldn’t have asked for a better start.
Four points from play inside the first 80 seconds. Three of them from William Buckley, inside 69 seconds. He would finish with 0-7. Not for the first time in 2026, he made the extraordinary look oh so ordinary.
But he was far from alone in the second half. Finn was immense off the bench, Ethan Twomey rock solid in midfield, while Sean Daly and Damien Cahalane impressed in defence.
Yet, by the 22nd minute, it was their opponents who led. Will Leahy set up Conor Cahill for a close-range goal finish which nudged the east Cork division ahead, and they were 1-4 to 0-5 clear when Youghal’s James Murray added a free. The Barrs would end up with eight wides in a row and spend 17 minutes scoreless during that period. They would finish with 17 off target.
The teams would have been level at the break were it not for some individual brilliance from Damien Cahalane.
Shadowing Billy McGann and spending most of the game at corner-back, Cahalane appeared at the other end in the 27th minute, tore in from the sideline, broke a couple of tackles and pelted the sliotar into the far corner with a wonderful one-handed strike.
It put them 1-7 to 1-4 clear. That three-point gap remained at the break, 1-9 to 1-6.
Buckley reopened the scoring work for the Barrs on the restart after Ben Cunningham broke a high ball for him, and while Imokilly found answers to the city side’s first two white flags, the Barrs would reel off five in a row to leave their advantage at eight.
Imokilly’s next point from Will Leahy was met with another four from the blue and gold. Eleven behind and with no way back, they pressed on anyway.
Oisin Fitzgerald capped a good performance with a long-distance point in a run of four consecutive Imokilly scores, while Adam Sherlock – who played the day prior for Cloyne – worked relentlessly to the finish and did well on Ben Cunningham.
But, the inroads Imokilly made were wiped out in the closing minutes, the Barrs finishing with four on the trot to seal an 11-point win.
B Cunningham (0-4 f), W Buckley (0-7 each), D Cahalane 1-0, C Cahalane, E Twomey, E Finn (0-2 each), J Wigginton-Barrett, J O’Kelly, B Hayes, S Cunningham (0-1 each).
J Murray (0-5, 0-4 f), C Cahill 1-1, M Kelly, W Leahy (0-2 each), O Fitzgerald, J Kennefick, A Lynch (0-1 each).
S Hurley; D Cahalane, J Burns, C Doolan; S Daly, C Cahalane, C Walsh; E Twomey, J Murray; J Wigginton-Barrett, B Hayes, J O’Kelly; S Cunningham, B Cunningham, W Buckley.
E Finn for Murray (HT), R Barrett for O’Kelly (50), A Barry for Walsh (52), C Crowley for Hayes (57).
E Davis (St Catherine’s); T Wilk (Cobh), A Sherlock (Cloyne), C O’Brien (St Ita’s); M Kelly (Castlemartyr), O Fitzgerald (St Catherine’s), C Martin (Castlemartyr); J Casey (Youghal) E O’Riordan (St Catherine’s); C Cahill (Cloyne), D O’Brien (St Ita’s), W Leahy (Aghada); J Murray (Youghal), D Mangan (St Catherine’s), B McGann (Castlemartyr).
D Leahy (Castlemartyr) for Martin, J Kennefick (Russell Rovers) for Mangan (both HT), L Duggan-Murray (Russell Rovers) for Cahill (36 inj), C O’Callaghan (Dungourney) for D O’Brien (40), A Lynch (Cobh) for O’Riordan (52 inj).
W King (Banteer/Lyre)
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